A farmer based in Damongo has lost ten hectares of soya beans to bushfire, rendering his hard labour throughout the farming season valueless.
The ten hectares of soya beans have been burnt beyond salvage at a time farmers are harvesting and others threshing.
In Ghana the peak fire season typically begins in mid-November and lasts around 14 weeks.
Seasonal bushfires in the Savannah region of Ghana have become part and parcel of the people, destroying farm and domestic properties worth thousands of Ghana cedis each year.
Mr Kpiirika Jatuat, the Savannah regional education directorate’s Public Relations Officer (PRO), lost his ten hectares soya beans to fire on Tuesday, 19th December, 2023.
Narrating the incident to Damongo based PAD FM 95.1mhz, Jatuat disclosed that everything in the farm got burnt by the fire beyond salvage.
“I can confirm to you that my ten hectares soyabean farm got burnt by unknown person.
I harvested soya beans, gethered them at a location and waiting for combine-harvester and all of a sudden it happened.
I have lost everything I laboured for during the farming season.
I am devastated and totally down. I just can’t understand why some people go round burning bushes”.
Jatuat has since reported the incident to the West Gonja municipal office of the National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO), Damongo, for necessary action.
Although the cause of the fire was unknown, most of the bushfires recorded in the area over the years had been caused by herdsmen, smokers and uncontrolled fires by some farmers.
A Rocha Ghana, an environmental NGO has consistently run sensitization programs on PAD FM and some communities on the dangers of bushfires.
Herdsmen, farmers, smokers, hunters and potential arsonists have consistently received radio and community sensitization sessions against bushfires.
padfm.com.gh / Zulkaninu Abdulai
